13 August 2016

Single life on the stage can be lonely.Better to have someone to share it with.Someone who understands youand can play alongwith the ups and downs of performing in musical theaters.

And carry your instrument cases too.

The husband and wife entertainers known as Künstler-Duo Alberts – Alberts Artist-Duomust have traveled with a large trunk to store all their musical equipment.Frau Albert played violin and zither.Herr Albert played guitar, harmonicas, and trianglepresumably all at the same time,though not entirely from memory to judge by the music lyre affixed to his guitar's headstock.And on the table behind them are some other instruments that are unclear,possibly tuned jingles and glass goblets.

Their German postcard is unmarkedbut their style of dress,especially Frau Albert's hair,suggests they worked the music halls of the 1920s.

****

Here is another German husband and wife act that needed a large padded trunk for their instruments.The Lyras Chrystall - Musik - Actperformed on tuned hand bells and glass goblets.Herr Lyras (if that indeed was his real name) holds a button concertina as he looks toward his wifewho appears to be blowing two simple brass horns.I believe they made a sound from a reed not unlike an old-fashioned car or bicycle horn.She probably kept several arrangedon the table, tuned to play a scale.Their musical act certainly requireda lot of action when each water goblet, hand bell, or horncould only play one pitch.

This postcard was sent from Dresdenon 16 January 1909.

****

This couple were featured in on my blogback in September 2014 in a postentitled Two Makes Three.

Their musical specialty also called for large trunks and cases,as the two performed duets on piston cornets, French hunting horns, and other unusual brass instruments. On this postcard Madame Gouget holds a simple hunter's hornmade from real cow's horn,but capable of only two or three musical pitches.Monsieur Gouget has a fantastic long brass instrumentapproximately 7 feet from the mouthpiece to the end of the bell.But if its zig-zag twists were straightened outit probably would measure close to 16 feet, which is comparable to the length of anorchestral horn using all the valve plumbing.As this horn has no valvesMonsieur Gouget could play only the natural overtonesof an alphorn, which has a very limited scale of about 16 notes.

This postcard is also unmarkedbut I've seen other cards of the Gouget Fantaisistes that date from 1908-09.

****

And finally a married couplewho toured the German theater circuitwith costume trunks marked his and hers,but not with the apparel you would expect.

Agnes and Hans Gossmann strike an amorous pose on this postcard.One spouse dressed in white tie and tailcoat,the other in an elegant dress with a frilly fringed hat.But I believe that Agnes is on the right and Hans is on the left.Cross dressers were a popular genreof theatrical entertainers in earlier times.The Gossmann's act probably consisted ofshort musical comedy sketches, with songs and dances,interspersed with quick costume changes.All while keeping the audience guessingwhich was the man and which the woman.

This postcard dates from the war years,postmarked 18 May 1917 from Bautzen,a town on the Spree River in eastern Saxony, Germany,

This is another installment for Sepia Saturday'smonth long celebration of love & marriage.

About This

This is a web gallery of antique photographs of musicians. Most are of people whose names are now lost in time but they represent the many kinds of players, instruments, and ensembles that once defined musical culture.But these photographs also capture a moment in the history of people and places, so I write about that too.

All the photos shown here are in my personal collection.

For Best EffectClick on the Imagesfor a Larger View

For information on my music for horn - go to the bottom of this column.